New logo for Youth Communication.
As our program grows and our products multiply, we decide to create one logo and tag line to accompany all of our materials. The logo is pictured above. We experiment with many tag lines, including "Stories that make a difference," and "Read between the lines." But in the end we decide to go with "True stories by teens," which reflects the fact that the teens' stories are the core of our program.

A Resource for Gay Teens in Foster Care: Gay youth are overrepresented in foster care, and often are treated insensitively. Our book, In The System and In The Life, is the first comprehensive manual for working with teens and staff to improve conditions for those vulnerable youth.

Reaching
New Audiences:

Cosmo Girl adapts one of Giselle John's stories about living in foster care, "One Reader Tells What It's Like."

Our teens' reviews of three foster care films, White Oleander, Antwone Fisher, and Love and Diane, are published on the Connect for Kids website. Other Youth Communication stories are reprinted in high school and college writing textbooks (Norton Sampler, Gale Group), statewide parenting curricula (Texas), magazines (Shelterforce, Gay Parent, Fostering Perspectives), curriculum packages, and websites and newsletters.

Kendra Hurley publishes stories in USA Today on the sexual abuse of children and Shelterforce magazine on aging out in foster care.

Kendra and Youth Communication editors Nora McCarthy and Rachel Blustain are the main writers for a major report on adolescents in the New York City foster care system, "Uninvited Guests," published by Child Welfare Watch.

Executive Director Keith Hefner is profiled in the May/June 2003 issue Children's Voice, the magazine of the Child Welfare League of America, about the importance of listening to youth voices in the foster care system. Please click here to read.

NYC alumnus Mohamad Bazzi, 27, is named Middle East Bureau Chief for Newsday. Mohamad, who was born in Lebanon, began writing for NYC as a 14-year-old and eventually published 46 stories in the magazine. Mohamad is quickly tossed into the storm of covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He wins the first annual Daniel Pearl Award, named after the slain journalist, from the South Asian Journalist's Association.

FCYU 10th Anniversary: In June, Foster Care Youth United publishes its 60th bi-monthly issue. In 10 years the magazine has helped catalyze a national transformation of the foster care industry toward greater openness. There is also growing recognition that client voices must be part of the mix in practice and policy.

Educating the Media: Alumni writer Giselle John is interviewed for Children's Beat, the magazine for U.S. journalists who cover children's issues, about her interactions with journalists. The magazine also reprints an anonymous story on sexual abuse by one of our teen writers.

Growing Emphasis on Independent Living: Each year more than 20,000 teens age out of foster care. It is generally recognized that independent living programs do not adequately prepare them to live on their own—especially for the emotional upheavals they will face. Our new Independent Living section helps address those issues and is a resource for teens and staff.

New Youth Connections is a finalist in the Association of Educational Publishers annual contest for its special issues on teens and their relationships with their families, "It's a Family Affair." Other themes for 2002-03 include homeless teens, conflict resolution, teen activism, and teen reactions to the war in Iraq.

Trauma: 9/11 and Otherwise: The attacks of 9/11 were traumatic for everyone, but as we've long known from working with vulnerable teens, the trauma in their daily lives is far more significant and debilitating. In the March 2003 issue of City Limits, Youth Communication editor Nora McCarthy profiles teen writer Princess Carr (see cover) and other New Yorkers who have suffered trauma, and notes the lack of services for them.

back (2001-2002) | back to top | next (2003-2004)